You Just Never Know (How To Get Your Show Produced)

Dreams Do Come True (although it may take 25 years)

File this story under S for ‘Stamina’, F for ‘Follow Your Bliss’, D for ‘Dreams Can Come True’ and Y for ‘You Just Never Know’.

Our friend recently told us about her friend Steve who’s been obsessed with Burt Bacharach’s music since the age of 8 and made a show of Bacharach songs that he performed at various stages for years. He got burned out on it and stopped doing the show all together, but it kept gnawing at him. He just had to do the show again, so he found a tiny theater, literally in a mini-mall in some tiny town in Southern California, and put the show up for a couple of nights. Then guess what?

Burt Bacharach’s wife happened to be in that tiny town, happened to hear about the show, happened to come to a performance and happened to love it. She brought Burt back to see it and he loved it too. And even though he’d never authorized a show like this featuring his music he not only gave his blessing, but became a producer. That show is Back to Bacharach and it just opened in LA.

I’m sure there were many twists between Burt seeing the show and the opening, but you couldn’t ask for a better scenario. Unless Steve got totally screwed on his deal, but we don’t think he did. All in all a pretty good argument for keeping at it even when it seems like you’re swimming upstream. Alone. In shark-infested waters.

Write on.

2009 Other Network Comedy Contest Winner Announced

Get your foot in the door

The Winner of the Other Network Comedy Contest for 2009 is…

Richard Lucas
(“Jim Hill’s Double-Breasted Suit” Standup Performance)*

Honorable mentions go to…
Mark Staufenberg (“Black Hitler” 30 Rock Spec)
Howie Kaplan (“Prince Barry” original pilot)
Abby Cohen (“Bad Habits” pilot for “Dr. & Mr.” original pilot)
Austin Hice (“Sweet Dee Blows a Dog” It’s Always Sunny… spec)

We wish we had time to give individual notes because some of the submitted material was not bad. There were some good premises,

Finishing School

Compete or Complete?

My name is Greg and I am a done-aholic.

I love finishing, my own projects or anyone else’s. The joy of completion. The fun of being done.

I think it’s really important to take a second and celebrate such a miraculous expression of your will. You’ve gotten this draft (or year) behind you. Good for you!

Oh, you haven’t finished yet? Well, there are probably some very good reasons why:

A is for Alignment

A is for Alignment

It’s really important to keep your creative energy flowing with the right physical alignment, the right allies and aligning with a clear purpose. Un-Cabaret’s guru Beth Lapides offers a cool inspirational pep talk about alignment, recorded at the Un-Cab Lab Writing & Performance Workshop.

Each class starts with Q&A and a Beth rap based on her own creative process. This rap is the first in her Alphabet of Creativity: A is for Alignment (Beth Lapides at the Un-Cab Lab)